The Japan Fair Trade Commission’s latest report has been released featuring insight into mobile operating systems and app distribution in the country.
Data was collected last year from web surveys of app developers and consumers, with the latter comprising 1,000 iOS users and 1,000 Android users.
Apple or Android
The Commission’s study notes that average smartphone usage increased from 37.6 minutes in 2012 to 110 minutes in 2021, and that 95.3 percent of consumers use a mobile phone daily. In 2022, Android users were found to have represented a slight majority of the mobile market at 53.4 percent, compared to 46.6 percent being Apple users.
Yet, the report reveals that the value of sales on app stores swings more in Apple’s favour, with ¥1.59 trillion generated on Apple’s App Store in 2021 versus ¥1.04 trillion on Android. Google Play was the means by which the largest share of players downloaded apps on Android at 82.7 percent, meanwhile the Amazon App Store and Samsung Galaxy Store came second and third with 5 percent and 1.4 percent respectively.
Interestingly, the report also highlights a “lock-in effect” where consumers largely stick to whichever operating system they currently use, preferring not to switch even if there were a hypothetical price increase; for users, “various costs are incurred in switching between Android and iOS” anyway.
The full report outlines the competitive nature of operating systems, and what a developer other than Apple or Google needs to do in order to find a place in the market.
A recent report by Newzoo, released in January 2023, examined media engagement and found that 60 percent of all engagement with media platforms now occurs on mobile. The company’s predictions for this year include “user acquisition for mobile games will become harder for (hyper) casual games“.
SocialPeta’s recent report found that strategy games increased in overall downloads by 10.52 percent and compared Apple and Android’s market shares.
